Guardian of Hope
by 0penfire
Summary: When Hermione told Professor Mcgonagall about Harry's Firebolt, she thought she was protecting him. But when her two best friends begin to hate her, she uses her time-turner to fix the past and as an encounter that she won't ever forget.


Hermione thought she had done the right thing when she told Professor McGonagall about Harry's Firebolt. It had no card or indication of who had sent it and mysterious gifts were often harmful ones in the wizarding world

She repeated this to herself while she held back tears in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"What did you go running to McGonagall for?" Ron shouted. His face was turning red.

Hermione threw the book she had been pretending to read aside.

"Because I thought –and Professor McGonagall agrees with me – that that broom was probably sent to Harry by Sirius Black!"

Harry dropped his arms to his side, loosely holding his tin of High-Finish Polish which he had been hoping to use on the broom he no longer had.

"Come on Harry," Ron mumbled. He grabbed Harry by the shoulder and led him to their dorm.

They left Hermione sitting on the couch. Crookshanks crawled onto her lap and she hugged him fiercely, ignoring the meow of discomfort from him.

"I just wanted to help. I wish that I never said anything. Or that he'd never gotten that stupid broom," she whispered into Crookshank's fur.

"That's it!" she said, sitting up suddenly and accidentally throwing her cat to the floor. "Sorry," she apologized briskly and she ran up to the girl's dormitory.

She hadn't been wearing it because she had no classes to attend but the time-turner still sat undisturbed in her bedside table. The sand within the little hourglass was still, and its multi-tiered rings were laid flat.

She grabbed it and before she let herself be persuaded otherwise, wrapped the chain around her neck and turned the dial.

Once. Twice. She turned it until she saw herself walk backwards into bed and pull the covers on herself, and then she turned it three more times for good measure.

"Alright," Hermione told herself quietly. She flinched as her past-self stirred in bed. Easing the door open slowly she snuck down the stairs.

The common room was empty of course but something felt wrong.

"Lumos," she whispered. It took her a few moments to realize why she was on edge - the fire that was always kept stoked was nothing more than coals. "That's strange," she muttered to herself.

"I'd say." Hermione tensed and looked around the common room for the person who had spoken.

She knew Harry and Ron were the only other Gryffindors who had stayed over the holidays – and she didn't know anyone with an Australian accent.

"Over here, sheila."

Hermione used her wand to search the darkness and held a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

Beside the dead fireplace where there had been nothing seconds ago, was a huge grey rabbit looking amused.

"You wizards deal with many strange things, but you lose your marbles over seeing a pooka," he shook his head. "How your lot learned to time-travel, I'll never know."

"You can _talk_?" Hermione gasped.

The bunny raised his eyebrow. "Apparently," then his eyes locked on the time-turner dangling around the girl's neck. With one bound he was right in front of Hermione holding the golden pendant in his large paw.

"Where did an ankle-bitter like you get one of these?" Hermione smacked his furry paw and he let go.

"The better question is how did _you_ get in _here_?" she squeaked, realizing too late that it probably wasn't a good idea to hit a six foot tall animal.

The bunny looked at her as if trying to guess how she would react to whatever he said. "Through one of these." He tapped his foot and a hole appeared in the wooden floor. He stepped into it and vanished. Hermione was about to follow him when it closed leaving a daisy in its place.

"Now how about answering my question?" Hermione jumped backwards with a shriek.

"Stupefy!" The rabbit ducked, ears flattening against his head. The red jet of magic flew over him and into the wall leaving a scorch mark in the red wallpaper.

"What was that for?" He glared at the young witch.

"How did you get behind me?" Her wand was still pointed at him.

"The same way I left." He tapped his foot and hopped into the hole that appeared. This time Hermione saw the second hole appear and the rabbit that came out of it. Although she was admiring the obviously advanced magic, she didn't miss the smug look on the rabbit's face.

After a few moments the smile vanished.

"Okay, enough chit-chat. Where did you get the –"The rabbit stopped mid-sentence to turn and look at the fireplace. Hermione looked too and was shocked to see the dying embers coated with a thick layer of frost. "Just bloody perfect," she heard the rabbit growl before a gust of cold wind came out of the fireplace leaving the room several degrees cooler. The rabbit was glaring at a spot in front of the fire.

"What are you looking at?" Hermione asked. Another gust of wind blew her hair back and she felt really cold.

"Step back Frostbite or she's gonna catch a cold," the rabbit said. Hermione still couldn't see what was causing the temperature drop, but she did feel a bit warmer as if the cold air backed off. She looked down to see two footprints made of frost as if someone had been standing in front of her moments before.

"She's time traveling." Bunnymund said to himself. "Why would I be lying?" He paused and continued talking to himself. "How am I supposed to do that?" Another pause. "Fine, but don't expect any gift out of me this year. Why don't you tell North that you'll catch up to him later; we might be here a while."

To Hermione's shock, presents dropped from thin air onto the already large pile underneath the Christmas tree. Before she could ask about it a gust of air blew up the chimney. "He shouldn't be too long. In the meantime, sit down. Everything will make sense soon." The rabbit sat down in one of the armchairs and she did the same.

A gust of cold air marked the return of the invisible guest. She heard a thump and a third armchair rocked onto its back two legs before settling on the floor once more. The rabbit waited a few moments for the air to settle.

"Alright, sheila, do you know what I am?" he asked. Hermione didn't hesitate in her response.

"A rabbit." Bunny glared at the chair that now had frost forming on it. He turned back to the witch.

"Wrong." Hermione made a noise of indignation. She wasn't used to people telling her she was wrong, especially when something was as blatantly obvious as a rabbit right in front of her.

"I am a pooka. Have you heard of them before?" Hermione began to shake her head, but then she remembered a passage she had read during her first year at Hogwarts while trying to find more information about Nicholas Flamel.

"Wait. There was something mentioned in a book (Notable Magical Names of Our Time)I read a while back. A wizard," she paused searching for the name. "Ombric, said he met one once. He even fought beside it on many occasions with a fairy and his apprentice. There wasn't much more than that in the book – I didn't believe a word of it because the tale was too farfetched.

Bunnymund's eyes seemed to soften at the mention of Ombric's name.

"It was real alright. Did it mention what I could do?"

"No, it was mostly about Ombr-wait. What _you_ could do?" Hermione realized she was on the verge of yelling at the pooka. She brought her voice back down. "That passage was dated hundreds of years ago! It couldn't possibly be about you!"

There was silence in the common room as Bunnymund decided how to approach the situation.

"Do you know about the childhood icons?" he asked.

Hermione was taken aback by the sudden change of subject, but she answered him anyways. "You mean like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunn- oh my god!" She pointed her finger right at the pooka's nose causing it to twitch. You're- you're the EASTER BUNNY?"

"Keep it down, sheila." Hermione ignored him.

"But you're _the_ Easter Bunny!"

"Yeah, but everyone calls me Bunnymund. The fairy in the story is Toothiana, but you'd recognize her as the Tooth Fairy. The apprentice that you read about is Santa and there's also the Sandman; he joined us a bit later on." He paused and a snowball hit his head causing him to glare at the chair again. "I haven't forgotten you but if you keep pissing me off, I might!

"Anyways, because I am a pooka, I can travel through time. As a bonus, I can also tell when people are meddling where they shouldn't meddle. That's why I showed up here; whatever you wanted to change in the past would have had some bad consequences."

Hermione couldn't see how keeping the broom from getting to Harry would change anything significantly. She told Bunnymund as much after telling him about the falling out she had between her and the boys. He thought about it and responded, "Well, even if it wasn't hexed, you'd be hiding what you had done from them. That would weigh heavily on your conscience, probably changing the way you'd act around them."

"They already hate me. Or they will in a few hours when I tell McGonagall about the broom," Hermione felt tears beginning to form. "They're my only friends – I can't lose them." Bunnymund was quiet for a bit.

"Frostbite is right. If they are really your friends, they will find a way to look past this one argument."

Hermione wiped away the tears from her face. "Who is Frostbite? You've mentioned him twice now."

"Do you believe everything I have told you so far? About me and the other Guardians?"

Hermione thought about it. Logic told this could all be some elaborate prank. Could Harry or Ron be under the invisibility cloak creating frost? No, they wouldn't have learned about elemental magic yet – that was sixth year work at least.

She resigned herself to the inevitable reality that the Easter Bunny was a time travelling pooka, and every other tale she grew up with in the muggle world was also real.

"Yes," she said with conviction.

"Then meet the fifth member of the Guardians, Jack Frost, spirit of winter." Bunnymund gestured to the chair that was still coated in frost. "He specializes in being an all-around pain."

A snowball appeared from thin air and flew towards the pooka who ducked to avoid the projectile. The snowball had to have come from somewhere. Hermione closed her eyes and focused like she did during a test. Bunny was having a one sided argument but she realised that it wasn't so one sided anymore.

"…think you're so special because you get a holiday! Well I've got news for you, cottontail! I give kids holidays whenever I want! I could make every day a snowday but I don't 'cause I'm a nice guy!"

Hermione opened her eyes and was shocked to see a teenager standing on the armchair pointing a staff at Bunnymund. He wore a blue hoodie coated in frost and his messy white hair stood out, especially in the dark common room.

"Mother Nature would probably kill you for that, kid, not to mention the other seasons." Bunnymund seemed rather calm despite his angry companion.

"Jack Frost?" She couldn't believe it. Surely he hadn't been there the whole time. The teen looked down at her, his scowl replaced by a wild grin as he bought his staff close to himself.

"That brings the total to twelve! I'll catch up with you yet, Bunny!"

"Twelve? I thought you were at nine – the Burgess kids, the Canadian girl and then that one in Russia," Bunnymund was smiling for his friend, knowing how good the feeling of getting a new believer was. Jack felt Hermione's belief a lot more that Bunny did. It was like a raindrop on an ant compared to an elephant though he would never make that analogy to Jack's face.

"The one from Russia got two of his friends to believe in me! It was a pleasant shock when I visited him last year," Jack was now floating on air – literally. He glided over to Hermione and offered his hand. "Jack Frost, Guardian of Fun. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hermione took his hand and, unsurprisingly, it was as cold as ice. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"That's a nice name," Bunnymund commented. Jack Frost turned on him.

"You mean you've been bugging her for how long now and you didn't even know her name? And I thought I had bad people skills." Jack was laughing at his friend. Bunnymund just shrugged.

"You should tell her what you told me. It'll probably mean more coming from you."

The joyous expression turned more sombre and it was as different as the night was from the day on the teen's face. He looked Hermione right in the eyes and she realized just how blue they were.

"Hermione, you shouldn't have to change anything that you've done in the past. Your friends will soon realize that you did what you did out of love for them. I'm not saying it will be tomorrow or even the day after that, but good friends always have a way of coming back to you." Jack's expression soured as if he was remembering something particularly painful. "I've made my fair share of mistakes which I would have changed in an instant if I could have. The point is what doesn't kill you needs to find a new tact because next time you'll be ready."

"That's not how the saying goes, Frosty." Bunnymund said.

"It's my pep-talk and I'll say what I want!" Jack glared at Bunnymund and with a wave of his staff, a snow cloud formed over the pooka. Bunnymund glared at Jack and swiped the cloud with his paw only to have it reform.

Jack laughed and put his cold hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Stay strong kid. You've got a good brain in your head and an even better heart in your chest." He gave a grin that sparkled like freshly fallen snow and then he looked around the room as if entering it for the first time. "You've been busy, Kangaroo. There must be at least a dozen flowers around here." He brushed the daisy by the fireplace with his foot and it turned into ice.

"There's five. I'm surprised you don't know how to count – you've had three hundred years to learn." Bunny was still swiping at the cloud with his paw but to no avail. Eventually he chose to ignore it. "Hermione, I know you have a few more hours living in the past but we've got to go. Snowflake needs to help North, er, Santa deliver some more presents and I've got my own job monitoring stuff at the Pole while he's out and about."

Jack knelt down and picked the frozen daisy out of the floorboards. He bowed gracefully to the Gryffindor student. "Merry Christmas, Hermione. I hope things turn out alright with you and your friends. I'll stop by in a few weeks with a blizzard that will knock your cauldron over so keep an eye out for me." And with that the spirit was blown up the chimney by the wind and, as Hermione realized he couldn't have fit under normal circumstances, probably some help from a certain wizard's apprentice. The ice covering the fire melted and it ignited once more throwing shadows over the room and replacing the cold of the winter spirit with a wave of warmth.

"He really does know what he's talking about, you know." Bunnymund stood up and shook the snow off of his fur. The snow cloud had disappeared with Jack. Hermione looked at him and was once again overwhelmed at how big he was. "Your friends will begin to see things the way you saw them and then realize that you wanted the best for them." He placed his large paw on her shoulder, much like Jack did, but his touch was warm. He turned away and was about to open a tunnel when Hermione stopped him.

"Jack said that he was the Guardian of Fun. Well, what are the others Guardians of?" Bunny smiled.

"Nothing gets past you, sheila. Well, us Guardians all have purposes. Tooth collects teeth because they hold memories of childhood, North gives ankle-bitters wonder with his presents, Sandy gives good dreams at night and of course Frostbite spreads fun through snow."

"And you?"

"I am the Guardian of Hope." And with a grin, Bunnymund disappeared into his tunnel and only a flower was left in its place. It was a beautiful chrysanthemum. Hermione slouched in the armchair and felt the weight of what had just happened fall on her. The Easter Bunny was real. Santa did bring presents every Christmas and Jack Frost wasn't just a figure of speech.

As the sun began to rise she noticed the flowers still sprouting from the floorboards and the scorch mark on the wall from when she shot a spell at Bunnymund. She was almost didn't want to pick the flowers because they were the proof that what had happened just a few hours before was real.

Eventually she did pick them and put them in a vase that was sitting on a desk, filling it with water using her wand. Surprisingly, the daisy that Jack had frozen was still icy. She tucked it gently in her pocket and repaired the damaged wallpaper of the common room.

She ducked into the bathroom as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She stayed there until she heard the three of them leaving for lunch in the Great Hall.

With heavy feet she left the bathroom and walked up to her dorm. She figured she had around two hours until dinner was over and she could take a nap – it had been a long, exhausting night. Hermione had already casted a wake-up spell but before she could flop onto her bed she noticed a wicker basket lying on top of her covers. Inside was chocolate eggs of all sizes and a note.

She picked up the envelope and broke the seal. She noted it had a large "G" imprinted in the red wax. The letter read,

"Dear Hermione, I hope your Christmas is going well. Bunny told me what had happened and that you might need cheering up. So, me and other Guardians got together and filled basket with good things. My yetis made cookies which can be found in red bags. (Elves made cookies in green bags, but I recommend throwing those in fire so you do not get sick.) Tooth insisted on giving you toothbrush even though I told her your parents make sure you take good care of your teeth. The chocolates are from Bunny of course. Sandy will bring you good dreams tonight and Jack, well, he says your present will come in few weeks. (Probably snowstorm. I have lined basket with scarf for you.) Merry Christmas Hermione and keep believing!

"Sincerely, The Guardians.

"Ps. If you need someone, you are welcome to send owl letters to any of us. We will get back to you as soon as we are able."

Hermione felt a warm sensation fill her as she read the note. She found everything as North had said. She took out the green bags and after opening to look inside, set them aside to toss into the common room fire. They were roughly the consistency of rocks with everything from raisins to cereal in them. She ate some chocolates and safe cookies and slipped the scarf out of the basket. It was the same shade of blue as Jack's sweater with frost designs. She wrapped it around her neck and sighed. The next few days wouldn't be easy, but she would manage.

Instead of lying in her bed, Hermione sat at her desk and began writing a note for the Guardians to thank them for the basket. She couldn't fight the grin that parted her lips. It had been years since she had written a letter to Santa.

* * *

I've had this in my head for a while, and I actually got around to posting it! There may be a sequel or there may not be, depending on how lazy I get. Reviews are fantastic, so are faves! I'm open to any suggestions :)


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